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Sunday, March 17, 2013

Bring me the Arm of Octavio Dotel

Or at least his baseball cards. Hurry, before that Arm realizes It's Alive! and simply clonks poor Octavio on his noggin and begins a reign of terror.

I love the digital photography era. There is frequently such great separation of subject and background. (Comerica Park on the above card....I'll be starting a Frankenset for it I think).

But sometimes the separation of the elements in the photo can get a little nutty. And then Dotel has a funky motion that makes me think his Arm is actually a separate creature. Just try and name another player with a larger fore-arm than bi-cep. And it surely ain't natural to have one's arm going on it's own special journey back there:

I have those two cards by the way. And his '11 Topps Blue Jays card, and most likely his '12 Topps Tigers card.

I really doubt the following image is on a card, because except on the sad subset of All-Star cards these days, 99% of baseball cards show the player's face. And here his fore-arm seems as one from a normal human, but this shot makes my shoulder hurt:

I swear that Arm is a quasi-independent creature Dotel has cut a deal with to throw baseballs for him.

Whoa. Did you just hear that sound in the closet? I think it's Dotel's Arm, recently escaped from an old Rat Fink card of some sort, and it wants out. It's got a baseball in it's grip, and it's gonna throw it. At you.

Surprisingly, I have resisted all temptation to post images of Dotel making a Funny Pitching Expression Face. His is a good one — he sticks his tongue out at the batter it appears. But the vast majority of pitchers on baseball cards make a Funny Pitching Expression Face. That idea just gets too old and overwhelmed too quickly when you have a pile of baseball cards to paw through.

So I didn't expect to ever do this, but I am launching a Player Collection. My very first one.

I doubt I will have much competition for all those rare short-printed Octavio Dotel auto-relic refractor cards, will I? Too bad the serial #/d cards for him won't have enough demand to merit a press run to ever match his uni #. That sucks.

I am only partially intrigued by the Arm. I have also always been interested in the players who play for the most teams. I think at 13 teams, Octavio holds the current record, which is good because he has absolutely zero League Leader in Italics on the backs of his cards. And the All-Time Record, I believe. So yeah, a PC for a player holding an All-Time Record. Makes sense I think. What about baseball card collecting makes sense?

Plus, 'ole Dotel is currently a Tiger, and probably likely to retire as a Tiger, though his Arm looks eternal to me. Not very rubbery, but not ready to quit yet either.

Another former Tiger also intrigues me as a frequent club-house hopper, starting pitcher Edwin Jackson. What is the deal with him?

Why do some players end up on so many teams? For Dotel, it's probably the nature of being a situational reliever. Surprisingly, he is not a lefty; I would think they would bounce around the leagues the most. But probably southpaws stay put more often than righties 'cuz there's never enough lefties to go around.

Other times though, you have to wonder. Does the player just simply fart in the clubhouse too much? Baseball does a pretty good job of keeping what happens in the clubhouse, in the clubhouse. All pro sports teams try to do that, with varying degrees of success. I think MLB does it the best. So I will probably never know why Edwin Jackson gets traded so much.

So in the months to come when you all finally get to see my wants/needs/desires and the pile of bait I am accumulating to obtain them, you can always offer in any Octavio Dotel card you might have. Any manufacturer, any team, any year. It will be neat to see who got his team right the most times, and whether he gets a card for all 13 teams, which I kinda doubt, or for all 15 seasons he has played on an MLB team. And who simply banished him to the Relievers Set, or the Update Set as it's described on the packs.

But I am still a month out from being reunited with my main collection of baseball cards, and 6~7 weeks out from enough time to type up lists of them, etc. I just came off a job without access to baseball cards......err, I mean the Internet, and all you fine folks. The other day, a Reaper flew over me. I thought maybe I should try to take a picture of it, but then it might lock on to me. Such is life working next door to a bombing range. Thankfully, they weren't practicing sorting their night cards.